Fantasy Premier League tips: Stick with Mohamed Salah or switch to Sadio Mane?

It’s the question that haunts Fantasy Premier League managers this season and with several Wildcard chips being played over the international break, it has only become more relevant.

The outlook of your team can be completely different depending on which Liverpool attacker you decide to go with. The current 3.1m gulf in value can transform your team one way or the other. Going with both however, is highly unprecedented and not entirely efficient as you would sacrifice on premium assets from other teams.

On the one hand we have Salah who in just his first season, established himself as FPL royalty and is already a Hall of Famer. On the other is Mane, who spent last season in his team-mate’s shadow but is threatening to steal his crown this term.

The Senegalese international has scored four goals already and is playing in a similar role to Salah on the opposite flank. He started at a value 4m cheaper than Salah at 9m but has since risen to 9.9m because of his good form.

Even now, the 3.1m saved from opting for him over the Egyptian can enable you to afford another premium midfielder as well like Eden Hazard (10.7m). Choosing Salah would mean surrendering that luxury and settling for a mid-range midfielder instead in the region of 7m.

In terms of value, Mane is currently twice as good as Salah. According to the FPL’s Value index (form vs price), he boasts a ratings of 1.0 to Salah’s 0.5.

WHY CHOOSE SALAH

For starters, he delivered 303 points last season, an all-time high, and deserves more than four gameweeks of your loyalty. He hasn’t done badly either, he just hasn’t hit the heights of last season yet.

However, his underlying stats are identical to what they were last term, suggesting that he’s currently underachieving while Mane is clearly overachieving. Sooner or later, it will start to tell in the points column.

An under-performing Salah has still managed two goals and two assists so far. Not too shabby at all. He also doubles Mane in terms of key passes per game (3.3 to 1.5) and shots per game (4.8 to 2.5).

CONCLUSION

What is more likely? Mane continues to put away every chance and maintain the kind of run in form he has never achieved before or Salah starts to be a little more efficient and surpass him?

Last season’s Player the Year has more shots at goal and is attempting more assists that his team-mate. At the end of the day, it may just come down to Salah taking his chances. The Egyptian has missed four big chances so far this season, Mane has missed none.

Clubs

Red Star Belgrade vow to protect Liverpool's Xherdan Shaqiri

Red Star Belgrade have pledged to protect Xherdan Shaqiri from “unwanted situations” when the Liverpool winger arrives for their Champions League group match in November.

However, general director Zvezdan Terzic believes the Switzerland international, born in the former Yugoslavia to Kosovan-Albanian parents, will be under “unbelievable psychological pressure” because of his background.

Shaqiri courted controversy during the World Cup when he celebrated a last-minute winner against Serbia with an ‘Albanian Eagle’ gesture.

He and Swiss team-mates Granit Xhaka and Stephan Lichtsteiner were all fined for unsporting behaviour for making the gesture, which symbolises the Albanian flag.

“Personally, I can’t imagine that an Albanian will play for Red Star,” Terzic told Belgrade newspaper Kurir.

“I think that Shaqiri will be under unbelievable psychological pressure because he will know where he is coming; he knows that the Red Star is a symbol of Serbia and playing the Marakana, I don’t know whether he will play.

“Of course, as a soccer club, we treat our rivals equally, and we do not have to deal with the past and the history.

“Red Star must do everything to make Shaqiri feel that he came to play football and it is our duty to protect him in the case of unwanted situations. Let’s be good hosts.”

Shaqiri was born in the former Yugoslav city of Gjilan, now part of Kosovo, where a Serbian crackdown on the Albanian population ended with Nato military intervention in 1999.

Kosovo, with a mainly Albanian population, declared independence in 2008 but Serbia refuses to recognise it as a state and it has led to tense relations between the two countries.

Liverpool misfit Lazar Markovic has rejected suggestions his last-minute deadline day move to Anderlecht fell through because of money.

The Serbia international, who has not played for the Reds since May 2015, travelled to Belgium after a cut-price £2.9million fee was agreed for him to return the club at which he spent the second half of last season on loan.

However, despite a three-year contract being offered, the move collapsed and led to Anderlecht’s manager Hein Vanhaezebrouck claiming it was the player’s fault.

“Our president and sports director did everything to convince Markovic,” he told Belgian media.

“They waited until Liverpool lowered the price. They almost did a crazy effort for the player, but it wasn’t enough. It’s his own fault that the deal fell through.”

But 24-year-old Markovic, who has also had unremarkable loan spells at Fenerbahce, Sporting Lisbon, Hull and is out of contract next summer, hit back.

“Thank you for making such a great effort for trying to get me back in the club. However, money was not the issue !!!!! Good luck in the future @rscanderlecht,” he wrote on Twitter.

Markovic has once again not been included in Liverpool’s Premier League squad and has no chance of playing under manager Jurgen Klopp so faces another four months in the wilderness, with even playing for the under-23s unlikely, until the window reopens in January.